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TikTok remains one of the fastest-growing and active platforms in the digital age, with more than 1 billion monthly active users on the app. Depending on who you ask, that number could be significantly higher.
The social media app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is also one of the most divisive platforms at the moment and, in the US, will be banned within a week unless a law is repealed or the company is sold. application.
There are 170 million users in the United States, the country with the second-highest use of the app, behind only Indonesia, but they will eventually no longer be able to do so unless a change occurs. And it is not totally ruled out that a sale will occur; Despite dismissive responses this week to reports that Elon Musk would be invited to buy the US arm of TikTok, he is clearly an American billionaire. is in the race to do just that.
Frank McCourt, who launched the Project Liberty initiative, wants to buy TikTok… but not as you know it.
The idea behind Project Freedom is to develop a “better Internet” that allows people to “take back control of their digital lives.” In short, they want online time to be healthier and lead to people's development, not just a loss of data and finances. So McCourt wants TikTok, but not the accompanying algorithm, which he has called “highly addictive.”
Many issues remain with a purchase offer, including the Supreme Court's ongoing ruling on the original prohibition order.
Considering trade relations between the United States and China, the fact that the Chinese government owns part of ByteDance, the complicated ownership structure surrounding TikTok, and much more, it's clear that there are several hurdles to overcome.
Another is the real valuation. McCourt's offer, through Project Liberty and other investors, is for $20bn (£16.4bn), based on an equivalent enterprise value of Snapchat, Forbes reports.
ByteDance has not confirmed the offer, or even whether they would sell the app, much less for how much.
Forbes suggests that different ways of valuing TikTok could vary hugely, up to $300bn (£246bn) if the algorithm was included.
McCourt doesn't want it. However, in an interview with Times He said he wants the app to be one where users can “signal their interests, express their intentions, verify that they are a human being” and receive ads and content based on that, rather than now the app works by watching “Monitor” people, profile them, target them and send them ads.”
The 71-year-old has also said he would take the “exact opposite” approach to content moderation that Meta's Mark Zuckerberg takes.
“Leave the power in people's hands to make those decisions” around privacy, content use, censorship and moderation, McCourt says.
After working in real estate development in Boston from the 1970s onward, McCourt later purchased MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers for $430 million in 2004. However, amid the threat of bankruptcy, he put the team for sale in 2012 and sold it for $2 billion. at the time a professional sports team record. In 2016 he bought French Ligue 1 soccer team Marseille, of which he still owns a 95 percent majority.
